1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates, generally, to safety equipment, and, more particularly to a portable health and safety compliance apparatus having compartments for storage, waste disposal, and a water system for cleaning and washing. The apparatus permits an individual or company to easily comply with health and safety regulations.
2. Background Information
The introduction of OSHA and other health and safety regulations have imposed a substantial cost on industry to provide health equipment and supplies at the job site. Existing ways of providing health and safety devices have a number of disadvantages. Compliance is often achieved by purchasing required health and safety equipment piece by piece and assembling and aggregating it all at the job site, often in an unorganized way. There are often problems of finding suitable storage containers and a method organizing the equipment and supplies. Proper storage for sterile medical supplies may not be available. Medical and safety equipment must be organized so it can be accessed quickly; equipment stored randomly defeats this objective. Furthermore, moving the equipment and supplies from one job site to another can disrupt any effort to organize them and is expensive and inconvenient.
Health equipment and safety equipment are distinct, yet have complementary functions. Health equipment includes hand and eye wash facilities and a well-stocked first-aid kit for treating injuries. Safety equipment usually includes warning lights and bells, sensors, and equipment such as safety glasses and respirators. Also, it is often desired to display printed safety information such as posters, warnings, directives, procedures and the like at a job site where there is often no suitable surface for such display.
Safety compliance is very expensive, and providing an integrated, compact, portable and aesthetically pleasing apparatus can substantially reduce costs of compliance. It is desirable to have a single portable apparatus that houses all the required safety and health equipment for a particular job in an organized fashion and protects it from adverse weather.
There are several portable carts designed for various specific purposes. U.S. Pat. No. 2,905,480 to Giovannelli discloses a carry-all cart with a drinking water supply and multiple compartments closed by doors, but this apparatus is rather small with an opening top and does not appear to have any provisions for making it weather tight.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,333,885 to Pullman discloses a portable part designed for fishermen with various apparatus to hold fishing equipment.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,797,612 to Buccioni discloses a portable cart with internal baskets on roller glides, and is specifically designed to accommodate hockey equipment to.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,224,220 to Cortez discloses a portable recycling and work center which has receptacles for disposing of items and has apparatus for holding cleaning equipment and a first-aid kit and fire extinguisher.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,790,610 to Welch et al. discloses a portable medical emergency crash cart which has a plurality of compartments with a transparent cover to allow visual identification of materials in the compartments. It also has a portion for disposables and a portion for attaching an oxygen tank.
While each of these carts are well-suited for their intended purposes, none of them are particularly well suited for supplying health and safety equipment to a job site. None is designed to be stored outdoors, and none include a sink for washing or any provisions to collect any waste water.
U.S. Pat. Des. 391,343 discloses a portable sink and foot pump integral with apparatus for dispensing soap, paper towels, and a disposal area.
Storage apparatuses designed for outdoor use are not designed to be readily moved and typically do not have wheels.
The present invention provides a mobile safety compliance apparatus which overcomes the limitations and shortcomings of the prior art.